Mikhail Shatsky, deputy general designer and head of its software department of the Mars Design Bureau, a Russian company that develops missiles used in Moscow’s war with Ukraine, has been killed, according to Kyiv Independent.

He was shot dead by an unknown assassin in Kuzminsky Forest Park, at Kotelniki, eight miles southeast of the Kremlin in the Moscow region, according to the Astra Telegram channel and other Russian and Ukrainian sources.

Shatsky was employed by a company that creates and produces onboard guidance systems for the Russian space and military industries. It has been a part of the state corporation Rosatom’s department since December 2017.

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He was also an associate professor and was working actively on upgrading the Russian Kh-59 cruise missile to the Kh-69 level, which Russian troops use to strike Ukraine.

According to Kyiv Independent, Shatsky was seen as the main proponent of incorporating AI technology into Russian drones, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Shatsky’s death was previously reported by Ukrainian-Russian anti-Kremlin journalist Alexander Nevzorov, who wrote on his Telegram channel that HUR “eliminated a particularly dangerous criminal.”

Nevzorov shared photos of a person resembling Shatsky lying dead in the snow. The man was reportedly killed in the Kuzminsky forest park near Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. The Kyiv Independent could not verify all the claims.

“Anyone who is involved in the development of the Russian military-industrial complex and support of Russian aggression in Ukraine in one way or another is a legitimate target of the Defence Forces,” the source said.

Washington:

Having survived two assassination attempts this summer, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday suggested that he would not mind if somebody took a shot at him through fake news.

Addressing his supporters at an election rally at Lititz in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump generated another controversy by saying that he should not have left the White House after his defeat in the 2020 elections.

“I shouldn’t have left, I mean, honestly. We did so well,” Trump said in his speech but immediately changed the topic. “So now, every polling booth has hundreds of lawyers standing there.”

Trump had refused to accept the results of the November 2020 elections. His supporters ended up attacking the US Capitol on January 6, which is considered to be the worst day in American democracy.

The former president, who is now 78, expressed frustration over the enhanced security around him after his recent assassination bids.

“I have a piece of glass over here. I don’t have a piece of glass there. And I have this piece of glass here. But all we have really over here is the fake news, right? And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind. I don’t mind that,” Trump said, referring the thick bullet proof glass around him and the gap in his protective glass.

“I have a piece of glass here. The problem with that glass is it’s – I don’t look great on television when you have a four-inch piece of glass that a howitzer can’t go through. No, when you see yourself on television, you say, boy, you’re really not very recognizable, to be honest with you, which is good. But here’s the problem. So I have glass here. I have glass here. Now, I’m not worried about this. Look, what do I have? A couple of people. And they’re friends, generally. There are a couple of people I don’t like in that group, but that’s like,” he said.

His remarks were criticized by the Democrats. Harris-Walz Director of Rapid Response Ammar Moussa said as Harris spent today at church in Detroit, talking to voters about her vision to lift up all Americans, Donald Trump was busy violating the Ninth Commandment.

“Trump is spending the closing days of his campaign angry and unhinged, lying about the election being stolen because he’s worried he will lose. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth and will walk into the Oval Office focused on them – that’s Vice President Harris,” Moussa said.

Steven Cheung, Trump Campaign Communications Director, said Trump was talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within 1/4 of an inch from killing him, something that the media constantly talks and jokes about.

“The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else. It was about threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats,” he said.

“In fact, President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!” Cheung said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Paris, France:

From hitjobs to sabotages and cyberattacks, Israel has either been blamed for or has itself claimed a variety of attacks against Iran.

In Israel’s sights are Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Tehran’s nuclear programme.

As Israel launched a series of air strikes Saturday, which it said were aimed at Iran’s military infrastructure, AFP looks at the other attempts over the years.

Revolutionary Guard

Israel has been blamed for targeting top members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, mostly in attempts outside their country’s borders.

Latest victims include a general killed on September 27 by the side of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Beirut. 

An air strike blamed on Israel on Iran’s consular annex building in Damascus on April 1, 2024 killed, according to Tehran, seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including two of top rank.

The recent killings are only the latest in a long list.

In December 2023, a commander died in Syria in an attack blamed on Israel, a year after a colonel was killed, also in Syria. 

In May 2022, Sayyad Khodaei, a member of the Quds Force, the unit in charge of the Guards’ external operations, was gunned down by two motorcyclists on his way home in Tehran. According to the New York Times, Israel told the United States that it was responsible for the hitjob. 

General Hassan Moghadam, responsible for armament programmes, was killed in an explosion at a munitions depot in November 2011 close to Tehran, in an operation blamed on the United States and Israel.

Iran’s nuclear programme

Israel has also been accused of carrying out targeted assassinations against several high-ranking Iranian physicists, often linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Among them are nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in November 2020 and presented after his death as a vice minister of defence. 

Scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was working on the Natanz nuclear site, and Majid Shahriari, the founder of Iran’s nuclear society, as well as particle physics professor Massoud Ali Mohammadi were others killed over the years.

Israel has also been accused of sabotaging Iranian nuclear installations, mainly the Natanz complex to the south of Tehran.

On April 11, 2021, the site saw a small explosion, according to Iran’s atomic energy agency.

The New York Times reported that Israel played a part in the “strong blast” that apparently took out the internal electric system supplying uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Another “accident” also hit Natanz in July 2020, in what Iran’s atomic agency had said was a “sabotage”.

In September 2010, a cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus took out the enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. 

Iran accused Israel and the United States, while information security experts also pointed the finger at Washington. 

Iran’s allies

Iran’s allies too have found that Tehran is not always safe shelter.

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31 in Iran’s capital in an attack blamed on Israel. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian petrol

In March 2021, the Wall Street Journal, citing US and Middle East officials, reported that Israel had in 2019 targeted at least a dozen vessels travelling to Syria and in most cases, transporting Iranian petrol.

The report said Israel had deployed underwater mines in the assault.

Through 2021, Israel and Iran accused each other of naval sabotages.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)